Within the manufacturing arts, “hemming” is a term that is used to refer to the process of rolling the edge of a workpiece over onto itself. This process is often performed with metals, such as sheet metal panels, to reinforce the edge, hide burrs or rough edges, conceal any sharp edges, or generally to improve the appearance of the panel.
Within the automotive industry, the hemming process may be used to join two panels together to form a unitary structure. When joining two panels together, the hemming process may include positioning an inner and outer panel in an adjacent arrangement, and then rolling an edge of the outer panel over the edge of the inner panel. Exemplary hemmed structures may include vehicle doors, hoods, and trunk lids.